These "external" costs are serious and seriously mislabeled as "external." To paraphrase Al Gore, this is the air that my, your, our children, and we are breathing and the water we are all drinking. That sounds pretty internal to me. How about you?

Costs that you don't see on the bottom line ...
that is ...
Coal makes us sick.

24,000 people a year die prematurely because of pollution from coal-fired power plants. And every year 38,000 heart attacks, 12,000 hospital admissions and an additional 550,000 asthma attacks result from power plant pollution.

Mercury contamination is so widespread that one out of every six pregnant women have mercury levels in their blood high enough for levels in the fetus to reach or surpass the EPA's safety threshold for mercury. ... Smokestack emissions from coal-fired power plants are the primary source of mercury pollution ...

But, these words (and my read of Harry's passion) give me hope that Harry Reid will be taking the fight to get serious action moving on smarter energy policy and a (much) better global warming bill than the failed Boxer-Lieberman-Warner in partnership with President Obama. To develop policies that will fight global warming while strengthening the economy.

"The evidence for the consequences of global warming is appearing with alarming frequency. [The] headlines are filled with tales of deadly weather." Amid Global Boiling, the heat is on.